Cyber war continues despite ceasefire

Arab and Israeli hackers have been waging a war to penetrate and torpedo government and official web sites. So far, efforts have been reported against Egypt, Israeli, Lebanese, Jordanian and Palestinian web sites.

Other targets have been news web sites. Israeli hackers report that CNN has been one target because of what they assert has been biased reporting.

One Israeli hacker has offered programs to topple enemy web sites. Yair Nevet, a 17-year-old hacker, said one target has been the seven web sites of the Lebanese Hizbullah. At least one Hizbullah site has crashed.

"There has been damage done to the Hizbullah web site," Nevet said.

Israeli defense sources said the hacking has done little damage and is being conducted by amateurs rather than by governments. They said Israel has invested huge amounts of money to protect vital computer systems, which are not connected to the Internet.

"You have to distinguish between war on the Internet, which is done by youngsters who want to prove their capability, and electronic warfare, which is another world," Gideon Sheffer, a member of Israel's National Security Council, said.